Quakers

Quakers, or the Society of Friends, are a Protestant Christian denomination dating to mid-17th century England. Quakers believed that God spoke directly to each individual through an "inner light" and that individuals needed neither a preacher nor a Bible to discover God's Word. Maintaining that all human beings were equal in God's eyes, they refused to conform to laws and governments unless God requested otherwise. Quakers also refused to observe the Sabbath, insisting that God had not set aside a specific day for worship, and that believers were expected to worship him each day. Women often took a leading role in Quaker meetings. New England Puritan communities ruthlessly persecuted the Quakers, with some being branded on the face with an "H" for "heresy"; from 1659 to 1661, four Boston Quakers were hanged for refusing to be banished. However, the Quakers found a new home in Pennsylvania, where William Penn established a Quaker colony which promoted religious freedom. Quakers became known for using thee as a usual pronoun, refusal to participate in war, plain dressing, refusal to swear oaths, abolitionism, and teetotalism. In 2012, there were 377,000 adult Quakers, with 52% in Africa.